Former WCW champion Sting was announced today as the headliner and the first inductee in the WWE Hall of Fame class of 2016. Sting will be inducted on April 2, the eve of WrestleMania, at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas.

Sting made his debut in 1985 with Continental Wrestling Association before moving to the Universal Wrestling Federation a year later with his tag team partner Jim “Warrior” Hellwig where the duo were known as the Blade Runners.

In 1987, Sting moved to to NWA and made his debut there at Starrcade ’87 and as the saying goes, the rest is history. During his time in NWA and WCW, Sting catapulted himself as the hero of the company and main evented countless of pay-per-views. His feuds with the Four Horsemen, Vader, Dangerous Alliance, Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan, and the nWo are legendary and the Stinger has the honor to say that he shared the last Nitro match ever with perhaps his biggest rival, Ric Flair.

His WCW career came to an end in 2001 when WCW was sold to WWE and Sting moved to TNA in 2003 and resisted attempts made by WWE to jump ship. The dream became a reality however in 2014 when Sting made his WWE debut at the Survivor Series, attacking Triple H. He wrestled at WrestleMania 31 against The Game and then wrestled Seth Rollins at Night of Champions, losing both matches.

During his wrestling career which he says it’s not over yet despite the injury he suffered late last year, Sting won the NWA title twice, the WCW US title twice, the WCW Tag Team titles three times, the WCW World Heavyweight title 6 times, the TNA Tag Team titles once and the TNA World title four times.

It’s a career that many wrestlers dream to have, a career that cemented Sting as The Icon in the world of professional wrestling.